Music Notes 2-11-24
Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most famous composers in history. Born in Eisenach, Germany in 1685, he spent the bulk of his most renowned composing time – the last 25 years of his life (1723-1750) - in Leipzig at St. Thomas Church, where he provided music for 4 churches in the area. He was a bit of a maverick, disagreeing with his employers and taking unannounced leaves of absence to go hear other musicians perform. There is even a story of him pulling a sword in the middle of the street during an argument with a local bassoon player (Bach publicly called him a “nanny goat bassoonist”…the bassoonist didn’t like it). He had 22 children with 2 different wives – Phyllis Diller used to joke that his harpsichord bench made out into a bed. His music, however, is what he is most renowned for. His catalogue is enormous, containing over 1100 pieces of music (that’s what has survived – we know a lot of his music was lost after he died), from small pieces for harpsichord to huge choral works (The St. Matthew Passion is written for 2 orchestras and 2 choirs). He is the god of organ music, however, and organists around the world defer to him and his music. During the time period between 1723 and 1729, right after he moved to Leipzig, he wrote most of his cantatas – small performance works that usually consist of a choral piece, a few arias and a couple of chorales (hymns). He wrote over 220 of these pieces, which were all written with orchestra. Probably the most famous single piece of music to come out of his cantatas is the piece we call Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, which is actually a chorale from cantata #147 – Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life). A wonderfully lilting countermelody underscores the main hymn tune, and is probably his most universally recognized piece of music, other than the organ piece Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which owes its renown to Hollywood.
Holy, Holy, Holy is a classic hymn that, at last count, has been published in 1421 hymnals. The words were written in by Reginald Heber, an English clergyman born in 1783. He entered Oxford at age 17, winning awards for his poetry, and was appointed to the post of Vicar of Hobnet (near Shrewsbury) in 1807. All 57 of his hymns were written during his time at Hobnet, were he resided for 16 years before being appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823. He was inspired by the Nicene Creed to write this great hymn of praise to the Triune God, with the intent that the hymn be sung before or after the creed was recited in a service, and on Trinity Sunday – eight weeks after Easter. The tune was composed by John Bacchus Dykes in 1861, and is considered to be one of his best melodies. He was called his tune NICAEA, in recognition of Heber’s text, and after their first publication together in Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861, the tune and the text have been inseparable.
Chris Tomlin was born in Texas in 1972 and learned to play guitar by playing along with Willy Nelson recordings. He has become one of the dominant forces in contemporary Christian music, and in 2012 CCLI announced that his songs were played 3 million times in churches that year. His 2013 album Burning Lights debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, only the fourth Christian album ever to open at No. 1, and he was pronounced the most sung songwriter in the world that year. In 2018, he was the 1st Christian artist to receive the “Billionaire” award from Pandora for reaching one billion Pandora streams. The song Indescribable was written by songwriters Jesse Reeves and Laura Story, and debuted on the album Arriving in 2004. Indescribable is listed in Christian Copyright Licensing International’s (CCLI) list of Top 25 Worship Songs of 2007 as #22. In 2008, it was listed in The Countdown Magazine’s list of Top 20 Praise and Worship songs as #6.
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise is a Christian hymn with words written in 1867 by the Free Church of Scotland minister, Walter Chalmers Smith. It is usually sung to the tune, St. Denio (referring to St. Denis, the patron saint of France), originally a Welsh ballad tune, which became a hymn (under the name Palestrina) in Caniadau y Cyssegr (Hymns of the Sanctuary), edited in 1839 by John Roberts, also known by his Welsh name, Ieuan Gwyllt (wild John), to distinguish him from numerous other John Roberts. Of this hymn, musicologist Erik Routley has written: "Immortal, Invisible should give the reader a moment's pause. Most readers will think they know this hymn, the work of another Free Kirk minister. But it never now appears as its author wrote it, and a closer look at it in its fuller form shows that it was by no means designed to be one of those general hymns of praise that the parson slams into the praise-list when he is in too much of a hurry to think of anything else but a hymn about the reading of Scripture. Just occasionally editorial tinkering changes the whole personality of a hymn; it has certainly done so here."